Zac Gallen believes he should be one of the front-runners for the National League Cy Young award. Bullying one of the best lineups in the American League on Tuesday night proved his point.
Gallen struck out 11 batters over six stellar innings, Alek Thomas had a spectacular diving catch on the warning track for the first out of the ninth and the Arizona Diamondbacks held off the skidding Texas Rangers 6-3.
“My job is just to keep us rolling,” Gallen said. “We have some really important games coming up the next five to six weeks, so anything to keep us in the right direction.”
Photo: AFP
Tommy Pham extended his hitting streak to 13 games for the D-backs, who swept the two-game series and have won five straight games, helping their cause in a crowded National League wild-card race.
They are a half-game ahead of the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds for the final spot.
The D-backs took a 3-0 lead in the second inning after loading the bases with no outs. The first run scored when Jace Peterson grounded into a double play and then Gabriel Moreno followed with an RBI single. The final run of the inning came home after speedy Taiwanese-American rookie Corbin Carroll reached on an infield single, beating a wild throw by Texas pitcher Jon Gray that allowed Moreno to score.
Arizona led 6-1 after six innings, but Texas cut the margin to 6-3 in the seventh on Corey Seager’s two-run single. The Rangers loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but closer Paul Sewald wiggled out of the jam by striking out Mitch Garver and coaxing a groundout from Travis Jankowski to get his 27th save.
It was the first out of the ninth that got the most attention — Sewald was still in awe of Thomas’ catch several minutes after the game. The center fielder ran deep into the right-center gap before leaving his feet to snag a hard-hit ball by Marcus Semien.
Sewald’s mouth dropped open when Thomas leapt to his feet with the ball.
“Until everyone cheered, I didn’t really think he had it,” Sewald said, laughing. “As a pitcher, I assume the worst.”
In New York, the Yankees extended a losing streak to nine for the first time in 41 years when Tommy Kahnle allowed a go-ahead homer to CJ Abrams with two outs in the eighth inning in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals.
Winless since beating the Miami Marlins on Aug. 11, the Yankees are on their first nine-game skid since Sept. 13-21, 1982 — the final month of a 79-win season. New York has been outscored 53-20 and has not held a lead since the second inning of its 11-3 loss in Atlanta on Monday last week.
In Tuesday’s other games, the Cleveland Guardians beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-3, the Reds pipped the Los Angeles Angels 4-3, the Atlanta Braves outplayed the New York Mets 3-2, the Seattle Mariners bested the Chicago White Sox 6-3, the Toronto Blue Jays survived the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 in 10 innings and the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Giants 4-3.
The Detroit Tigers overpowered the Chicago Cubs 8-6, the Tampa Bay Rays dominated the Colorado Rockies 12-4, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St Louis Cardinals 6-3, the Milwaukee Brewers put down the Minnesota Twins 7-3, the Houston Astros topped the Boston Red Sox 7-3, the Marlins blanked the San Diego Padres 3-0 and the Oakland Athletics pipped the Kansas City Royals 5-4.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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